So. The cat is out of the bag. Daenerys knows she is not technically the rightful heir to Iron Throne after all. A secret male heir exists, who happens to be the man she fell in love with and came to help, leaving the war for her throne unfinished. Aw, bugger!
In an episode filled with emotional moments and last-minute passionate exchanges, this was perhaps the most difficult and awkward conversation and certainly carrying the most weight. Jon Snow told Daenerys Targaryen, his Queen and paramour, that he is the secret son of Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys’s elder brother. As Rhaegar was the crown prince and Jon is the male child of his body, that makes him a better claimant to the throne than Dany, Rhaegar’s sister.
The scene is poignant in many ways. Robert Baratheon claimed that Rhaegar had raped Lyanna, and even Dany believes that version, even though Rhaegar is her brother. In telling her the story, Jon not only announces his own identity but also clears the name of his birth-father from a terrible rape accusation. This also puts their relationship in jeopardy, as their ancestry makes it incestuous, and the North may be even less inclined to accept them as a couple.
From Daenerys’s perspective, this is a terrible blow to everything she has known and believed about herself. She has received only coldness since arriving in the North. Sansa has made it clear, despite Dany’s efforts to reach out, that the North will not accept her as Queen any time soon.
Naturally, her first thought is, Jon’s brother and best friend are cooking up a story to pit him against her. Jon, on the other hand, has no such doubt about either Bran or Sam. They are ‘saved’ from this impasse when the alarm sounds, but the issue remains. The preview of the next episode has them standing on a high place, much like the dragon lair. It seems they are going to battle together.
The big battle is coming, and the survival of all of them is put into jeopardy. Will learning about Jon’s parentage affect the Dany’s response in the battle in any way? And if they survive, is this the end of their romance?
Guess we will have to sit out the Season to know that!
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3 was all kinds of shocker, but the biggest has to be Arya putting an end to the Night King. None of us saw that coming, right? Well, a few did. Redditors pulser1977 and u/gride9000 had predicted way back in August 2017 that Arya would kill the Night King, that too with the same Valyrian Steel catspaw dagger. That’s some serious Greenseer abilities right there, we’d say! Read on.
Pulser1977 made a case for Arya’s dagger being ‘Lightbringer’, the famed flaming sword of Azor Ahai. u/gride9000, on the other hand, thought the dagger held parts of the Dragonglass knife that the Children of the Forest used to create the Night King. Both surmised that as the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran had a specific reason to give that dagger to Arya and not anyone else. Ergo, Arya is going to be the one to kill the Night King.
At that time, most of the discussion about Azor Ahai, both in the show and among fans, had been centred around either Jon or Daenerys. Both of them have Targaryen heritage and fulfil many other requirements of the prophecy as well. But both these Redditors noticed something that the show was hinting at but the fans were yet to catch on – the catspaw dagger was being given an unlikely amount of importance.
Pulser1977 states that “the [Lightbringer] prophecy speaks of a sword “made of living fire”, but prophecies should never be taken literally. The hilt is made of dragonbone, which could account for the “fire” aspect. And the hilt also contains a ruby. Now, Melisandre’s choker also has a ruby, so it seems that rubies are associated with the Lord of Light.”
(Spoilers Main) A theory about the catspaw dagger from asoiaf
On the 21st of the same month, redditor u/gride9000 pointed out that the dagger has been slowly but surely built up as a “hero prop” right since Season 1. It was sent to eliminate bran, then it ended up in King’s Landing. Then Petyr Baelish gave it to Bran, and Bran to Arya.
“Why does it deserve the screen time in a season that can only be described as quickly paced? … This knife has history. Why is it so important compared to other Valarien blades on the show? We see Bran give away the knife. He knows what’s going to happen. What will Arya do with it?”
[MAIN SPOILERS] How the night king will die. from gameofthrones
The dagger having that ancient Dragonglass, or the picture on Sam’s book being the same weapon might seem like far-fetched ideas in hindsight. But both got the crux of the matter right – and stood vindicated when at wee end of ‘The Long Night’ Arya plunged the dagger into the Night King’s heart.
Looks like we got a couple of Three-Eyed Ravens there, folks!
Game of Thrones Season 8 episode 3 aired this Sunday. Titled “The Long Night“, this episode debuted to shaky ratings, and mixed opinions from fans. Fans had some pretty specific complaints about the episode, but the biggest one of the bunch was that it was just too dark in terms of lighting, for them to be able to watch it properly.
As soon as the episode started, fans started posting on social media about how it was too dark. We see the episode kick off in Winterfell and then pan out to the exteriors of the castle, where the Night King is arriving with his army, and his own storm. Of course, everything was expected to be pitch dark because of this, but for some fans, their limited feature screens could have ruined the experience:
My favorite scene from today’s episode of #GameOfThrones
ffs why is it so dark pic.twitter.com/mlOAF73pED
— Lil Stick (@iamAndeesh) April 29, 2019
HBO: Let’s make a show about dragons and zombies and spend a gazillion dollars on it
Also HBO: Let’s make it so dark literally no one can tell what’s happening#GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/3enAjRQa0G
— Jamie ? (@JamieFiorito) April 29, 2019
Me trying to see who’s fighting whom in the dark. #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/Ztv98xNb84
— Deanne Mullins (@worleygirl_74) April 29, 2019
Article says GOT is dark because the show’s creators wanted it to be realistic.. ITS A SHOW ABOUT FLYING DRAGONS AND ZOMBIES, NO ONE IS HERE FOR REALISM – GIMME SOME LIGHT https://t.co/nPPGOUYL2b
— Casey Neistat (@CaseyNeistat) April 29, 2019
How we all watched #GameofThrones tonight. For the screen is dark and full of terrors… pic.twitter.com/uNuwamszXM
— LA White (@OrangeMoon_2002) April 29, 2019
Me struggling to watch all the dark scenes in tonight’s episode. #TheNightIsDarkAndSoIsMyTV #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/wQ5Y6kFOpv
— Leön Cörriea (@goonerleon10) April 29, 2019
However, cinematographer for the show, Fabian Wagner mentioned that the episode was exactly as intended by the showrunners and the director. He even argued that he knew it wasn’t too dark because he shot it. He also said that it is possible that HBO’s compression (post-processing and content quality) might have caused the episode to appear darker than it was.
What do you guys think? Was the episode too dark? Talk to us in the comments, down below!
Game Of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, The Long Night was a really long episode and was a gift that kept on giving. This episode confirmed what many fans had been saying since a long time; Arya Stark is the baddest character of them all. After successfully skewering the Night King and his frosty lieutenants and wights by extension, Arya seems to have closed down one long-lasting storyline of the series in one fell swoop, or rather, jab.
Shocked? The Red Priestess might just have prophesied this back in season three. Oh yeah, Melisandre came back by the way, for one last hurrah. In season three when Melisandre runs into Arya, Gendry and the Brotherhood Without Banners, she tells Arya, “I see a darkness in you, and in that darkness, eyes staring back at me: brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you’ll shut forever. We will meet again.”
Arya’s shut a lot of eyes since then, and as the episode showed, the blue eyes that Melisandre was talking about belonged to the Night King.
Melisandre and Arya have a final encounter in the latest episode after Beric sacrifices himself to save Arya, which Melisandre would have us believe was Beric’s purpose all along. Melisandre drops a gentle reminder which is a throwback to Syrio Forel’s favourite quip; “What do we say to the god of death? Not today.” In this context, one can presume that the “god of death” is the Night King. Arya then sprints off to shish kebab him.
All of this seems to point to another prophecy; that of Azor Ahai or the Prince Who Was Promised. According to the prophecy, a saviour who is the hero Azor Ahai reincarnated will “lead the people against darkness” with the flaming sword Lightbringer. If we were to get literal, parts of the prophecy don’t add up to Arya being Azor Ahai, but past events would show that it’s the very nature of prophecies; they don’t pan out as precisely as they were foretold.
Melisandre initially thought Stannis Baratheon was the Prince That Was Promised (lol, what?) before moving on to Jon and Daenerys. But now, Arya seems like the most likely candidate.
What do you think?
